#made for lazy GM

[dragonkid11]

The Lancer Map Creation Tool by Interpoint Station is a program that lets you create complex yet readable battlefields in minutes, featuring a random generator to generate a map in seconds as well as assets integration to create your own terrain asset and biome.

[aethelwyneleigh27]

A little something of Simon Riley x Bookworm!Reader

A/n: Did you guys miss this format? So do I, hope you guys are doing well because I would not wish my suffering on my worst enemy, for the first time in a while, school makes me want to self exit. These days have been the busiest for me and I doubt that it will get better from here. I'm just exhausted from life but never from you guys <3

Taglist: @wishesforyou @puff0o0 @simping4konig @simp4konig @blingblong55 @azereus @rustic-guitar-notes @callsignsnowpunisher @anonymuslydumb @skeletalgoats @icarustypicalfall @connorsui @capuccino192 @miss-gms-and-the-rotten-womb @celestialhole @the-second-sage @starryylies @duck-a-doodle @everlastingmoonlightsworld @keiva1000 @iexiam @drewsmusee @konigceo

My CoD Masterlist <3

My Simon "Ghost" Riley Playlist <3

Simon Riley who absolutely adores your reactions when you read, a little bored on a lazy day in bed with him with your reading material in hand. The way you squeal and wiggle your feet made him want to peek onto what you were reading but he didn't need to, the moment you notice him curiously trail on you when you've finished a chapter or a moment you can't help but rant about.

Simon Riley who absolutely adores the way you get passionate about romantic stories, sometimes it motivates him to get a little creative with date ideas although you insist that simple dates are just fine.

Simon Riley who loves sneaking up behind you to peek at what you're reading, to see if you hide it while all flustered or if you bolt so he could playfully chase and pin you down.

Simon Riley who actually picks up an interest in reading because of you, he loved the idea that he's able to be more connected to you, having heated sessions of ranting together, dissing on annoying characters and such.

Simon Riley who was thankful you for introducing him to audiobooks, he was usually busy with some of the repairing and some maintenance of your shared home whenever he comes home after months. It gives him time to catch up while doing something productive so you can have your book review sessions.

Simon Riley who likes it when you look for him in the house after he went to do chores while you immerse yourself in another world. The sound of his name being called over and over by you is the best to him, sometimes waiting for you to say his name a little more before responding.

Simon Riley who builds you your very own bookshelf at your third anniversary, he went through the effort of finding a wood color that he knew you'd like and crafted the intricate bookshelf with a matching ladder that had wheels at the bottom so you could slide down like belle in that scene from beauty and the beast.

Simon Riley who gifts you reading material that you told him you were dying to read, your birthdays and other special occasions, even merch of hyper fixations you have, the same ones you use to decorate the bookshelf he made.

Simon Riley who likes to experiment in the bedroom based on what you've noted and annotated scenes on the spicy romance novels you've kept. He does it in his absolute spare time, sometimes when you aren't home, he likes to see what turns you on, so you'll come home to a surprise.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Three AI insights for hard-charging, future-oriented smartypantses

MERE HOURS REMAIN for the Kickstarter for the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There’s also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

Living in the age of AI hype makes demands on all of us to come up with smartypants prognostications about how AI is about to change everything forever, and wow, it's pretty amazing, huh?

AI pitchmen don't make it easy. They like to pile on the cognitive dissonance and demand that we all somehow resolve it. This is a thing cult leaders do, too – tell blatant and obvious lies to their followers. When a cult follower repeats the lie to others, they are demonstrating their loyalty, both to the leader and to themselves.

Over and over, the claims of AI pitchmen turn out to be blatant lies. This has been the case since at least the age of the Mechanical Turk, the 18th chess-playing automaton that was actually just a chess player crammed into the base of an elaborate puppet that was exhibited as an autonomous, intelligent robot.

The most prominent Mechanical Turk huckster is Elon Musk, who habitually, blatantly and repeatedly lies about AI. He's been promising "full self driving" Telsas in "one to two years" for more than a decade. Periodically, he'll "demonstrate" a car that's in full-self driving mode – which then turns out to be canned, recorded demo:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/

Musk even trotted an autonomous, humanoid robot on-stage at an investor presentation, failing to mention that this mechanical marvel was just a person in a robot suit:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/elon-musk-tesla-robot-optimus-ai

Now, Musk has announced that his junk-science neural interface company, Neuralink, has made the leap to implanting neural interface chips in a human brain. As Joan Westenberg writes, the press have repeated this claim as presumptively true, despite its wild implausibility:

https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/elon-musk-lies

Neuralink, after all, is a company notorious for mutilating primates in pursuit of showy, meaningless demos:

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/

I'm perfectly willing to believe that Musk would risk someone else's life to help him with this nonsense, because he doesn't see other people as real and deserving of compassion or empathy. But he's also profoundly lazy and is accustomed to a world that unquestioningly swallows his most outlandish pronouncements, so Occam's Razor dictates that the most likely explanation here is that he just made it up.

The odds that there's a human being beta-testing Musk's neural interface with the only brain they will ever have aren't zero. But I give it the same odds as the Raelians' claim to have cloned a human being:

https://edition.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/03/cf.opinion.rael/

The human-in-a-robot-suit gambit is everywhere in AI hype. Cruise, GM's disgraced "robot taxi" company, had 1.5 remote operators for every one of the cars on the road. They used AI to replace a single, low-waged driver with 1.5 high-waged, specialized technicians. Truly, it was a marvel.

Globalization is key to maintaining the guy-in-a-robot-suit phenomenon. Globalization gives AI pitchmen access to millions of low-waged workers who can pretend to be software programs, allowing us to pretend to have transcended the capitalism's exploitation trap. This is also a very old pattern – just a couple decades after the Mechanical Turk toured Europe, Thomas Jefferson returned from the continent with the dumbwaiter. Jefferson refined and installed these marvels, announcing to his dinner guests that they allowed him to replace his "servants" (that is, his slaves). Dumbwaiters don't replace slaves, of course – they just keep them out of sight:

https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/behind-the-dumbwaiter/

So much AI turns out to be low-waged people in a call center in the Global South pretending to be robots that Indian techies have a joke about it: "AI stands for 'absent Indian'":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

A reader wrote to me this week. They're a multi-decade veteran of Amazon who had a fascinating tale about the launch of Amazon Go, the "fully automated" Amazon retail outlets that let you wander around, pick up goods and walk out again, while AI-enabled cameras totted up the goods in your basket and charged your card for them.

According to this reader, the AI cameras didn't work any better than Tesla's full-self driving mode, and had to be backstopped by a minimum of three camera operators in an Indian call center, "so that there could be a quorum system for deciding on a customer's activity – three autopilots good, two autopilots bad."

Amazon got a ton of press from the launch of the Amazon Go stores. A lot of it was very favorable, of course: Mister Market is insatiably horny for firing human beings and replacing them with robots, so any announcement that you've got a human-replacing robot is a surefire way to make Line Go Up. But there was also plenty of critical press about this – pieces that took Amazon to task for replacing human beings with robots.

What was missing from the criticism? Articles that said that Amazon was probably lying about its robots, that it had replaced low-waged clerks in the USA with even-lower-waged camera-jockeys in India.

Which is a shame, because that criticism would have hit Amazon where it hurts, right there in the ole Line Go Up. Amazon's stock price boost off the back of the Amazon Go announcements represented the market's bet that Amazon would evert out of cyberspace and fill all of our physical retail corridors with monopolistic robot stores, moated with IP that prevented other retailers from similarly slashing their wage bills. That unbridgeable moat would guarantee Amazon generations of monopoly rents, which it would share with any shareholders who piled into the stock at that moment.

See the difference? Criticize Amazon for its devastatingly effective automation and you help Amazon sell stock to suckers, which makes Amazon executives richer. Criticize Amazon for lying about its automation, and you clobber the personal net worth of the executives who spun up this lie, because their portfolios are full of Amazon stock:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

Amazon Go didn't go. The hundreds of Amazon Go stores we were promised never materialized. There's an embarrassing rump of 25 of these things still around, which will doubtless be quietly shuttered in the years to come. But Amazon Go wasn't a failure. It allowed its architects to pocket massive capital gains on the way to building generational wealth and establishing a new permanent aristocracy of habitual bullshitters dressed up as high-tech wizards.

"Wizard" is the right word for it. The high-tech sector pretends to be science fiction, but it's usually fantasy. For a generation, America's largest tech firms peddled the dream of imminently establishing colonies on distant worlds or even traveling to other solar systems, something that is still so far in our future that it might well never come to pass:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

During the Space Age, we got the same kind of performative bullshit. On The Well David Gans mentioned hearing a promo on SiriusXM for a radio show with "the first AI co-host." To this, Craig L Maudlin replied, "Reminds me of fins on automobiles."

Yup, that's exactly it. An AI radio co-host is to artificial intelligence as a Cadillac Eldorado Biaritz tail-fin is to interstellar rocketry.

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/#tailfins

[kurishiri]

Jude chapter 2 silly but kinda detailed summary

꒰ ִ ֺ ⊹ @ notice ⊹ ֺ ִ ꒱ any pretty translation you may see in here may not be 100% accurate or contain creative liberties due to characterization or narrative flow purposes. this is a sort of summary as well. if you enjoy, though, please consider reblogging, but please don’t repost these or claim these as your own!

for some ungodly reason jude and ellis r in kates room the moment she woke up and judes not lookin very appy hes like how long r ya gon sleep for ya bloody pleb and ellis is like haaii gm kate 🌸✨✨ and then jude like “get ready in 3 seconds” while holdin her chin. again, for some reason lmao

ok turns out we goin to their other jobs at a company called raven co

and ellis tells kate they got shops overseas too (wow jude got a boomin business) and they sell stuff in a lotta places and allat jazz. anw some dude greets kate and the others and thinks that kate is ellis gf. kates like umm no and hes like so ur the boss’ gf?

then he gets judes boot before kate can reply and judes like

Jude: It’s all yappin’ with ya so early in the mornin’, I see.

J: If ya gonna yap useless things, how ‘bout ya use that mouth o’ yours to do a bit more o’ your job?

J: If ya want a pay cut though, that’s a separate matter.

turns out the dudes name is theodore walker. 21 y/o. employee. first impression: bright dude

so kate asks ellis what his role is and hes like “hmm lets see, being a guard, preparing for guests, confirming clients, brewing up a storm…” and kate here thinkin wait a damn minute i have a feeling i heard smth real violent just now and then is like do you do anything else and well ellis responds with more violent words with a 😊 face. kate is like i thought i got myself into an evil org then jude comes in like

Jude: Well this evil company’s boss got some work cut out for ya.

she gotta sort out these letters (a loott of letters…) and judes like “if ya worked as a letter carrier ya mustve had to sort out letters before gettin breakfast”

ok so apparently judes kate just blurts out things w/o thinkin 💀 bc this time shes like well if hes gonna make fun of me (jude calls her princess but /neg) then challenge accepted! and then is like “ok bet i will get this done ez pz 🍋 squeezy” and judes got that shit eatin grin on his face like “that ya will do by the time i get back”

they r indeed still in their enemies era. her only saving grace now is ellis’ kind smile. ellis to the rescue! ⛓️🫶✨

omg ellis is actually an angel here he helps kate when he can sorting out letters and hes like gj today kate. you managed to do sm on ur own, u should be proud of urself and kate is like hes so kind… (yes he is!)

ah yes we cant escape the ellis is sweet as jam™️ allegations here

kate asks ellis why he joined crown and tldr its bc vic reached out to jude and jude said ok

Kate: But did you have to get caught up in all this too…?

Ellis: But——he made a promise with me.

As he said this, Ellis’ eyes narrowed softly.

Kate: …A promise?

Ellis: I’m waiting for Jude to reach the happiest moment of his life.

E: And I need to be by his side to see that moment.

[ insert some lines im too lazy to tl here ]

Ellis: But, it seems that moment just doesn’t want to come. …It’s like Jude is always unhappy.

jude comes in the door like yall so damn annoyin and is like stop yappin bout she don’t need to know. but ellis is like but its her job as fairytale keeper. and kate is like “i have a question for u too jude! why do u have ellis by ur side?” jude responds like “none ya damn business” but one tinie push from ellis and jude lets out a resigned sigh and speaks on it and is like hes got physical strength and a good ability. cant let that sorta value slip by. that said his heads got some screws loose so

and kate is like omg! he answered me!!

(So Jude has Ellis by his side so he can use his abilities at his convenience,)

(and Ellis wants Jude to fulfill his wish, I guess?)

They kept one another by each other’s side to help realize what the other wants.

——If I were to put into words what their relationship would be, it would be ‘a contractual relationship.’

That was the day I had gotten my hands on valuable information on Jude for the first time.

ko-fi☕️ ┊ comms🤍

NOTE: i forgot to mention that i can take comms to tl judes main story chapters, avatar mission stories, and his side stories in full, as ciele, the one whos gonna tl his story, said that i could tl chapters from his story too. the turnaround time per chapter is usually around 1–2 days from the time i start it. (for jude it might be closer to 2 days.)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

J. Dylan Sandifer at TNR:

Two egos like Elon Musk’s and Donald Trump’s could never share the spotlight if it weren’t for the unifying force of grifter solidarity—two oligarchs teaming up to further tip the scales against everyone else. Just as Trump’s P.R. campaign as a canny dealmaker hid his multiple bankruptcies, Musk’s rogue genius performance serves as cover for the fact that he’s just another billionaire buying up others’ ideas and playing the system with enough of a safety net to repeatedly fail. His whole shtick is built on the idea that he’s a bold, self-made innovator who defies the odds, shuns government handouts, and stands for the unbridled power of the free market. In reality, his empire, built originally on an apartheid emerald mine, has been propped up by public money for years. One of its most consistent sources of income has been Tesla’s exploitation of the carbon credit market.

Tesla, the supposed future of clean energy, isn’t just making money by selling electric cars—it’s making a fortune off a regulatory loophole. In the first nine months of 2024, 43 percent of Tesla’s net income came from selling credits to other automakers that hadn’t met emissions standards. It’s not innovation that’s keeping Tesla’s finances afloat; it’s a rigged system that Musk is milking for everything it’s worth. And all the while, he’s using his newfound power as Trump’s unelected co-president to gut the very government programs that provide working people with a fraction of the support that he’s quietly pocketing. Musk loves to sneer at working-class people who rely on food stamps or unemployment benefits, claiming they’re lazy or entitled. But what’s more entitled than using regulatory credits to boost your company’s stock price and then leveraging that stock for loans to keep your cash flow steady? The hypocrisy gets even more grotesque when you look at Musk’s role in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency—the dystopian fever dream where he’s now helping Trump dismantle social programs under the guise of “cutting waste.” While he’s ensuring billionaires like himself keep their tax breaks and loopholes, he’s working to slash food assistance, disability benefits, and Social Security. The plan is clear: If you’re rich, the government will help you get richer. If you’re poor, you’re on your own. Meanwhile, Musk has strategically positioned himself to undermine public infrastructure alternatives to his products. Musk has started targeting public transit and infrastructure projects, claiming they are bloated and inefficient—while his own half-baked ideas, like the Las Vegas “Loop” (a glorified tunnel for Teslas), receive public subsidies and fizzle out into tech-world vaporware. He is claiming that government spending on social good is a waste, while positioning himself as the one true visionary who should receive those taxpayer dollars instead. Here’s how Tesla’s legalized scam works: Under California’s Zero Emission Vehicle, or ZEV, mandate and the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards, carmakers are required to meet emissions targets. If they don’t, they have to buy carbon credits from companies that produce cleaner vehicles. Tesla, which only sells electric cars, racks up a surplus of these credits and sells them to gas-guzzling automakers that don’t want to invest in real change. In other words, Tesla isn’t making money because it’s selling cars efficiently—it’s making money because Ford and GM still rely on gasoline. Musk has figured out how to turn regulatory inaction into a billion-dollar side hustle. If Tesla’s carbon credit well ever runs dry—if regulatory standards change or if automakers finally catch up—Tesla’s bottom line takes a hit. That’s when the whole house of cards Musk has built starts to wobble.

Musk’s entire empire hinges on one thing: Tesla’s sky-high stock price. He’s leveraged Tesla shares to take out massive loans, using them as collateral to fund his lifestyle and side projects. This means that keeping Tesla’s valuation high is a matter of personal financial survival. Those carbon credits—essentially free money from the government—make Tesla’s earnings look better than they actually are, which in turn props up its stock price. But this strategy is starting to fall apart. Tesla’s stock is plummeting—down nearly 40 percent this year—due to increased competition, battery technology falling behind, and Musk’s erratic behavior scaring off investors. When a company is built on smoke and mirrors, it doesn’t take much for the illusion to shatter.

A big chunk of Elon Musk’s Tesla income comes from their regulatory credits scheme.

[royalpicaro]

⁶So, I work at a fast food joint and I thought: "How funny would it be to see where each Link aligns to the set people I work with and basing them on the types of worker."

So this is my Linked Universe Fast Food AU(modern times ofc)💅

|Time|

Role: General Manager(GM)

Age: 38

Shifts: All

- Started the company 5 years ago with Malon and Twilight's full support

- Is very understanding but stern

- Knows who calls out the most and the least and how to prepare

- Has the schedule out every week before 5 pm. on Saturday. Every. Single. Time.

- Wants everyone to lock in every day, but knows only one will on each shift

- Will go to the office just to get away from the chaos after a big rush, on really bad days, he'll call Malon

- Is there to talk to when someone needs it

- Will make the others take breaks to look good on paper and because the boys need it

- Is the best when it comes to everything in the store except for paperwork/laptop work because he hates it and the damn laptop is slow as shit

- Will not tolerate disrespect from customers

- Loves when someone asks to see THE manager

- Waits in the group chat after posting the schedule to see who asks for coverage/who responds first

- Does the same when he sends a "Hey team" essay of a message.

- Will usually be at any station or in the office

|Twilight|

Role: Captain(Shift Lead)

Age: 20

Shifts: All

- Been there for 5 years

- Time's son, so he HAS to lock in

- The most reliable for transport if someone can't get to work

- More lenient than Time, known as the Chill Lead

- He's got a pet wolf that he occasionally brings to work

- A yapper

- Will stand around doing nothing or talking if it's slow

- Is the messiest one

- Backseats on prep sometimes

- Defends Time when his stern attitude is brought up but agrees on some points

- Cutie Patootie

- Tries to defuse a situation and gentle parent the customer

- It works 99% of the time

- Doesn't care where he's stationed at, just wants the day to go by smoothly

|Sky|

Role: All Star(Trainer)

Age: 19

Shifts: Mostly nights

- Been there for a year

- Loves training people

- Is tired 24/7

- Will fall asleep at one of the tables on his break

- Likes to be a cashier and up front. Maybe drive thru if he feels adventurous

- Great with customers

- Yapper 2.0

- Checks the bags for every single order

- Is usually the one who says, "If anyone needs a shift covered, HMU" in the company group chat after the schedule is posted

- Will walk through the middle of a rush to go grab something for a customer that's up front in bins for them to grab

- Sits in the bathroom for longer than normal because "Bro needs a break" 5 min after getting to work

- Not lazy but not super productive

- Not a bad employee cause he can lock in when he needs to

- Immediately goes to Twilight when a customer is upset and walks away from the situation to go sit in the bathroom

- Clocks out on the dot and zooms out the door

|Warriors|

Role: Captain(Shift Lead)

Age: 22

Shifts: Nights

- Been there for 3 years.

- Is grumpy from the second the store comes into view

- He's the only one to use the assigned chart to tell everyone where to go on his shift

- "Too bad" kind of guy

- Ladies man

- Has the best success rate when it comes to promotion sales

- Does not have a vape but will steal a hit or two from Legend's each shift

- Hates that the hat he has to wear messes up his hair

- Is the kind of person to come in with friends on his day off for free food

- Loud

- Younger brother is Wind who comes to work with him sometimes

- Goes to the walk in to destress even if its freezing

- Legend and him call each other names and banter

An exchange between them:

W: *Reaching for half of a cookie that they made but a customer forgot*

L: Yeah bro eat some, I already ate half.

W: Okay, fat fuck(affectionately)

*Cue them both laughing hysterically and trying not to be too loud*

- Legend and him are best buds, childhood friends

- Locks in when there's a rush and is usually right beside Legend finishing orders

- The two work like a well oiled machine

- Will go back to a conversation he had before the rush

- Prefers being in the back

- Hates dealing with rude customers

|Wild|

Role: Squad

Age: 18

Shifts: Mornings

- Has so much energy in the morning

- Gets prep done easily

- Makes food for himself before open

- Makes food during open

- And after his shift

- Not good with customers

- Likes being the heart and soul of BOH

- If one of the machines is broken, he can most likely fix it

- Perfect cook on everything every time

- Has a spot for everything at any station he's at.

- Locks in but for a max of 30 mins to an hour. Anymore time after that, his brain becomes mush

- Yapper 3.0

- Likes to hide in the bathroom after a rush and often races Sky there

- Is selective about what shifts he picks up

- Will never take a night shift

- Claims it ruins his me time

- Hates customers

- Will start a task just to avoid interacting with them

- Hates drive thru

- The Newest Guy

- Has been there for 4 months

- Doesn't really care if he's promoted or not

|Legend|

Role: All Star(Trainer)

Age: 21

Shifts: Nights

- Locks in when he really wants to

- Been there for 2 years, got recommended by Warriors.

- If there's a list, then at least a good portion, if not all of it, is getting done.

- Doesn't realize he's locked in

- Will hit his vape in the back out of view of the cameras

- Doesn't care where what station he's at but always ends up in the back some way or another

- Is quick asf

- Reliable on weekdays

- Unreliable on Weekends

- Calls out rarely but always with a good reason

- Will forget that he gets a break

- Will usually go somewhere else for food on break but its in the same plaza

- Will only yap if there's a conversation he's interested in

- Will pick up morning shifts but only if he absolutely needs the money

- Has no idea how he got promoted

- Any time Wars and him are on shift is a sign that its gonna be loud and silly, but shit will get done and close will be phenomenal

- He'll drag the office chair to the prep table and sit there when its slow, scrolling on Tiktok and finding a corner where he can vape undisturbed

- Somehow hides from the rest of the store on his break

- No one knows how he does it

- He'll pop out of thin air when he's done but literally no one knows where he goes

- Claims he was just "in the back"

- Will occasionally smell like the Devil's Lettuce

- Will talk to customers if he has to

- Can and will be a problem

- Sassy asf

|Hyrule|

Role: Squad

Age: 20

Shifts: All

- Been there for a year and ½.

- Soft spoken

- Hates it when the customer gets upset

- Stressed out by everything

- Often asks about the correct way to do things

- Is great with nice customers

- Great with kids

- Is not allowed near the prep or cooking area

- One time he got back there and the entire prep area was scorched

- Likes drive thru

- He feels pretty cool with the headset and it great at multitasking

- Is the best at drive thru

- Cutie Patootie 2.0

- Quiet but observant

- Will hear someone call out something and answer even if he wasn't the one it was meant for

- Comes in clutch

- Another "HMU if you need a shift covered" kind of guy

- Is pretty chill once you get to know him

- Close friends with Legend and Sky

- Also reliable to help out with transportation

- A sweetie

- Likes to be stuck at drive thru

|Four|

Role: Squad

Age: 18

Shifts: All

- Been there for a year.

- HATES it when the tall people put something up high

- Is constantly finding new ways to get things down from somewhere without getting the step ladder out

- The only other person that can help out with the machines being broken

- Matches customer energy

- Can and will be petty

- Will not pick up shifts and will watch the group chat blow up if there's a big rush then say "oh well"

- He was "busy" is his excuse

- He learned not to leave the app open when reading the chat

- Will just straight up steal a food item and leave once he's done

- Has lost all the fucks to give

- The life of the shift when he is there

- Funny and loved

- Makes jokes with everyone

- He's super aware of everything around him

- Need that lettuce? There's already one in the fridge. Need bread? New full bin is in place of the old one before you can even ask. Need Lobby restocked? Already done.

- Locked tf in every single shift

- Star employee

- Doesn't even try, just do

- Loves angry customers cause he gets to try out gentle parenting

- Eventually will get impatient and just call over a shift lead.

|Wind|

Age: 14

Role: Morale Booster

Shifts: Whatever Warriors is working

- Does not work there, yet, but enjoys being around the guys

- Cutie Patootie 3.0

- Yapper 4.0

- Usually stuck in the office

- Asks for meals and loves that he gets them to be customized more than customers

- He's a great cheerleader

- Bursting with cheer

- Has a full team of guys behind him to protect him

- If he gets bullied then I pity the ones who get found

- Knows Legend well enough to make jokes

- Will go home with Legend if Warriors has to stay

- They get chinese take out and play video games all night

- Time loves him

- Twilight will occasionally drop him off at school in his truck

- Sleep overs at Time's place for company meetings are a monthly thing.

|General|

- Malon loves the boys

- Time can sing

- Twilight can play guitar

- Hyrule can use his hands to make a flute

- Legend provides the drinks and other party stuff👀

- Wind knows a lot about the ocean

- Four can lie really well

- Warriors is the best big brother

- Sky has a "talent" of sleeping anywhere, any time

- Wild is the best cook and always bring two to three dishes to the sleepover. Everyone gets excited for his food

- Legend hates it when his friends come in. They're cool and good buds, but he doesn't like when they show up without warning.

- Warriors is Legend's closest friend and biggest critic.

- Wild is still learning, but he gets along well with the others.

- Four is the one the others make fun of, but would defend in a heartbeat.

- Twilight is a ride or die for all his co workers.

- Time is preparing Twilight to take over the role of General Manager when he hits 40 cause that's when he'll retire.

- Sky is the only one with a write up that was made when he first joined because he fell asleep in the bathroom and missed his whole shift.

- Holiday and special event parties are done at Time's house. Meeting parties are done at the store.

- Legend occasionally drops Life Lore and Time is somehow surprised that the kid is still living.

- Some shit talk happens

- Legend is the only one known to smoke marijuana among the group, but he knows who does and who doesn't.

And that's it. I figured Legend would be the one most likely to vape and smoke cause well, the guy is traumatized and he needs some way to escape. Though I don't see him being someone who smokes marijuana often. I think he'd use it as a mental help rather than just to smoke because he can.

But yuh, anyway, I shall drop this here and you guys tell me if you hate it or not.

BUHHYYYYEEE!♡

[puckpocketed]

from my navigation

I’m just some guy at my desk. I have very few original, serious, well-informed takes about draft order or draftees. I can collect scout testimony and clips but I would not have anything of substance to say about where someone is gonna go in the draft <- anything i say is 70% joke and 30% vibes-based scrying. I don’t know what every team wants out of a draft, don't follow every top draft-eligible, and I don't plan to!!

i feel like i always need to add this disclaimer... anyone can do what i do (only consume hockey content for months on end and follow a bunch of scouts around and trawl for prospect media) and while it's flattering people care about my takes, i dooo think just stalking any of the various scouts on twt and jumping into their replies to ask questions would yield much better results. THAT BEING SAID!!

on 🐻 Carter Bear 🐻 - i love 🐻 when people 🐻 are called bear 🐻 show me bear 🐻🐻🐻 <3 he was injured (achilles) and people thought he'd be out long term but last I heard his rehab was going swimmingly. what I'm saying isn't gonna be anything new but i remember there being plenty of hype for him building up pre-injury, people going as far as to say he'd go early in the first round - he's a darling of the public scouting sphere.... but of course their jobs aren't on the line. they aren't responsible for drafting as high as they rate him, the team scouts and gms are, so we shall see! again i'm saying nothing new, but there'll come a point where teams are unwilling to let a player go due to perceived upside, whether it's size, scoring, skill. for scrying purposes - I think a team surprises us and picks him late in the first round 🐻

on Porter Martone - i have made a few silly jokes about gmmg drafting Martone to the sharks due to how he's a skilled power forward who hits people and grier is on a Size/Skill/Will agenda <3 but there are various conflicting reports about Martone's game. He's physical and then he's not, he's a play driver and then he's a perimeter player.... And to address your point, from a cursory search I have found one Shane Wright comparison from oldmate Simon St-Laurent regarding Martone's competitiveness/motor or whatever you wanna call it.

...I think so much of how "motivated" a player looks is about divining their inner workings by reading body language (unreliable!) and the situation they're in (subject to change) - some people may never be motivated, some people need the right conditions. under one team, with one coach, certain linemates, and at different points in the season, any given player might look listless or unmotivated. swap out one or more of those variables and they might be one of the most consistently performing players on the ice. this is why people say "player X needs a change of scenery", no?

and i'll cop to it, i am compromised here. I have a soft spot for Wright the size of mince marners next contract and a healthy distrust of speculations about player motivation. I dislike any comparisons to Shane Wright on the basis of his motor because i genuinely think he works for what he has and I like him. I haven't seen enough of Martone's games to verify these claims for myself, and in this I want to see it for myself that there's an established pattern before I make conclusions.

TL;DR I am not going to comment further because I have no opinions on if he's "lazy" because I simply don't know!

thoughts on the draft (1) we should abolish the draft and if i could do it tomorrow i would. all players should be allowed to negotiate contracts with all teams from day 1.

(3) every player who has ever dodged the draft or chosen another league or demanded a trade or held out in college to reach free agency IS correct forever and i hope more of them do it THUMBSUP!!!!

(2) i am constructing the ethics of how i consume draft content as i go but in general i'm not out here to tear down children or bully them online for kicks. i really hope no one comes here expecting that.

[vizell]

Ironhide x Sam: #50 "I don't want to hear about it."

When I say the bigger the better I mean it. I'm a shameless Bayverse simp and don't worry I know where the door is. OMW there as we speak. Totally not inspired by those few Everyone x Sam fics that you can find on AO3. As per usual - blame it on @lucianhuntress

It has been a few months since events at Mission City and Sam’s life has pretty much settled back to what it used to be. With small additions of a girlfriend, best mate in the form of his cool ass ride slash guardian and nation level top secret secret to keep aka transformers. With whom he, surprisingly, bonded really well. The ‘autonomous robotic organisms’, especially the autobot gang, have become really close to him. Despite their freshly formed alliance with the US government and relocation to a more appropriate base the bots have kept in touch with Sam via text messages. How they have access to sim cards was beyond him but he didn’t question it too much. And once in a blue moon familiar alt forms would drive by and park right by the Witwicky residency. ‘Shore leave’ so to say.

It was one of those afternoons when Sam’s mother, Judy, had a brilliant idea to urge Sam to ask one of his alien car friends to go and pick up her order of garden flowers. Their back yard has finally been restored after Sector 7’s extorsions and oddly-localized-earthquakes-that-were-actually-autobots-having-nervous-dance-that-she-didn’t-need-to-know-about, so Witwicky matriarch has been eager to plant her pretty little garden again. 

Sam had groaned at the request, not necessarily even out of laziness or teenage rebellion, but an embarrassment to request something like that from literal war machines. It didn’t take more than one stern look from his mother for Sam to shut his trap, grab the receipt, and walk out of the door. As he walked toward their driveway, which has become an alien autopark for the weekend, Sam checked his mother’s order. Based on how much he was to pick up Bumblebee was out of the question, Ratchet would be awkward to drive, and Optimus… let’s say he had no confidence in driving a semi truck to a garden store. That was leaving him with…

Ironhide.

With a deep inhale and even longer exhale Sam headed to the black GMC pickup truck. He dreaded the weapon specialist’s reaction to his offer to go and pick some flowers but to his surprise the bot hummed at his request and popped the driver’s seat door open without a question. The teen couldn’t hide the surprise on his face as he scrambled himself into the driver’s seat and buckled up. “Where to?” Ironhide’s stern voice came from the stereos as the navigation panel lit up, waiting for Sam to punch in the address. He quickly did a double take on the receipt to make sure he typed it in right. The monitor found the destination quickly, estimating the drive for about a little over an hour, the store being right outside of Tranquility.

“We should make it there in time,” Sam commented as Ironhide rolled out. “Easily,” was huffed back with humor in the tone before music took over in the cabin. The teen smiled at that, leaning on the frame of the rolled down window enjoying the warm breeze. His other hand never left the steering wheel despite the autobot doing all the driving.

There was barely any conversation between them, some passed by comments about places they drove by and songs that came on radio. Nothing more and one would say that most of the time it was an awkward silence. But to Sam, it was a comfortable one. The one he had grown accustomed to.

When they arrived at the garden store, Sam asked Ironhide to find the spot closest to the entrance, as there will be a lot to load in. The mech obliged without any comments, which at this point made the teen wonder. Ironhide was usually rough and blunt with comments, if not a tad sarcastic. So for him to be so obedient, dare he say, was starting to concern him. With that in mind, he gave GMS’s hood a pat.

“Will try to be quick,” the teen told the bot over his shoulder as he headed to the store, to which he got flashed by headlights.

The garden building, true to its words, was all green and humid. The cashier counter was right across the hall from the entrance and had an air fan blasting right next to it. Thankfully, with barely any other customers around Sam was taken in right away. A clerk went through his order, nodded and asked him to wait for about a few minutes as his order was in the storage.  While waiting Sam let himself wander away a little. After an aisle with seeds and on sale garden equipment came a row of stone figures. He lazily passed them by before one of the statues caught his attention. A dog of a small breed, sitting straight as on guard. It eerily reminded him of his own little rat of a dog, Mojo. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the resemblance and whipped out his phone, to snap a photo and send it right away to Ironhide. 

The autobot answered instantly. “That thing is not riding with us.” 

Sam chuckled. “Don’t worry, most likely out of my price range.”

“Good. Primus knows the one you have was a mistake enough.”

Amused by the weapon specialist’s dislike of dogs, or especially of Mojo, he did kneel down to check the price of it. Just for fun. And yes, the price did make him wince. 

It wasn’t even a minute later that the clerk rolled out a stroller with a few levels of long boxes with different kinds of seedlings and a few stacks of bigger pots. On the lower level of the cart were two huge packages of soil. Sam mentally sighed but gave the worker a nod and a smile, thanking for the service.  The cart being stacked to the brim, it took Sam an embarrassing amount of effort to get it moving. He carefully maneuvered it out of the automatic doors and stopped right next to the waiting black pickup truck. He didn’t have to say a word for the back trunk’s tailgate to fall open. With a “thanks” he began transferring the load into the car.

He was really careful and thus really slow to Ironhide’s amusement. “What? Those things heavy for ya?” 

Sam winced, as true to the bot's words the little workout was making him sweat. Hitting it like a nail that the teen was indeed pretty scrawny. Even by human standards. But in his defence it was really hot! And he had been working out… but not as vigorously as one maybe should.

“You try tetris these seedlings,” Sam bit back. “Here trying to make sure that we won’t lose any on our way back, big shot. My mom can be really scary when it comes to her flora.”

Sam expected for Ironhide to double down on him but surprisingly the mech went silent. And after a pregnant pause just added “Take your time.”

It was now obvious that Ironhide was somehow taking this whole ordeal way too seriously and the teen was struggling to figure out why. So the rest of loading Sam was given peace and quiet. He himself tried to be as quick as efficient as possible, finishing off with belts to keep the inventory from sliding around. And with that they were on their way back. 

The sun was rolling down towards the horizon and it was getting darker as they drove home. The radio was playing music quietly, filling the clearly awkward silence this time. The curiosity was eating up on Sam and at some point he couldn’t keep it in and decided to breach the topic.

“So, thanks for helping me out,” he started hesitantly.

“No problem,” Ironhide grunted back, passively. 

“Honestly, even kinda surprised that you agreed so easily?” 

“Hmm? You thought I wouldn’t assist you?” mech asked back, now more focused on Sam.

“Easily was the key word in that one.”

“I have no clue what you are talking about,” Ironhide tried to dismiss the topic.

“Oh come on,” the teen was now invested, being sure that there was something after all and he hadn’t just imagined it. “Usually you would have tried to wiggle out of chores unless it involved something cool or explosive. I don’t say that you wouldn’t have helped but I was sure that I would have to bribe you into this.” 

The autobot stayed quiet, continuing to drive, even if a tad faster. “So what is this about, big shot?” Sam pressed one more time. A long sigh echoed through the cabin, music now completely muted. “We were given access to the Sector 7 files and they had recordings of the night when they came for you and your family.” Sam listened, not interrupting, having no clue where this was going yet. 

“And I will have to admit, I do… umm… feel uneasy around your mother.” 

Sam’s eyebrows shot up as he stared at the stereo system leaning forward, waiting for the bot to elaborate. Which the other one didn’t feel like doing.

“Wait? So all this compliance ‘cause you fear my mom’s wrath? Really?” 

Ironhide kept his silence, clearly uncomfortable with his own confession.

Sam dropped back in the seat, closing his eyes for a moment. He didn’t feel like laughing or poking the bot about it. Because in the end he completely agreed with him.

“Honestly, same…” Sam admitted. “I don’t understand how Michaela and Bee agree that mom is sweet and gentle. I feel like they always look the other way when she starts to breathe fire at me.”

“She does that too?” Ironhide chuckled, asking half seriously.

“Figuratively of course, but might as well,” the teen sighed and his eyes went back to the dashboard. “But why would you fear her tho? Not like she can do much to you? Maybe break your windshield with a baseball bat, or key your paint job…”

“Or deny us permission to stay at your residency,” the mech added.

It was now Sam who was rendered speechless. Before he could ask to elaborate, Ironhide continued. “You don’t understand how frustrating the human bureaucracy and all the rules and restrictions are at the base. So our connection to you and Bumblebee staying with you is a great reason for us to get permission to leave those barracks even if for a short while. Prime says it’s temporary, that he is working on getting us better space. But… yeah meanwhile these shore leaves are one of the few things that keep me sane there.”

Sam was surprisingly touched by Ironhide’s honesty. He felt guilty for never considering how possibly uncomfortable the autobots felt while away, never asking them about it. They themselves were pretty much walls of stoic strength that wouldn’t complain unless directly asked. So hearing that for them coming over was almost an even bigger event that it was for Sam… warmed him from inside. The teen’s grip on the wheel tightened. “I will fight mom if she’s against your guys' stay overs. You are always welcome at the Witwicky driveway in Tranquility,” Sam reassured.

Ironhide’s genuine chuckle boomed in the cabin. “Hope these chores will soften the blows.”

The dreadful flash of red and blue accompanied with chilling ‘whoop-whoop’ sound washed away all the fluff from the air exchanging it to the dread. Sam’s eyes quickly shot to the speedometer that was showing close to 40mph while in the suburban area.

“Shit. Shit. Shit! A ticket will only make matters worse!” The teen panicked, spotting the police car through the rear view mirror.

“Should we hit and run?” Ironhide suggested, voice serious.

“NO!” Sam yelled. “Pull over! Gently! And please be quiet while I… handle it.”

Ironhide did as was told and came to stop at the side of the road, cutting off the engine. The police car parked right behind them and an older, tired of his life looking man came to the driver’s side window. He flashed the teen with a small flashlight, then the passenger seats, making sure he was alone before putting it away.

“You know why I pulled you over, kid?” he asked without enthusiasm. 

Sam, at the edge of panic, attempted to collect himself. “G-good evening officer,” he stuttered before clearing his throat and attempting again. “I’m very sorry, I got distracted while trying to figure out the addresses around here and wasn’t aware of the changed speed limit,” he explained, lying through his teeth. He has come up with a few excuses beforehand, as he was afraid that he and Bee would be pulled over one day. But his guardian has managed to stick to the rules well, escaping the need to use any. 

“I see…” the policeman eyes him, clearly not impressed. “Your documents.”

“Hmm?” Sam asks, baffled. 

“Your driver’s license and registration,” is stated more sternly. 

“Oh! Yeah right,” Sam scrambled in his seat as he tried to pull out his wallet from his back pocket. He swore he heard Ironhide chuckle at his struggles to which he shot a glare before turning back to the officer.

“Here you go,” he gives the papers which are quickly accepted and taken back to the patrol car behind them. Sam didn’t dare to move or speak, his heart hammering in dangerous overdrive. Ironhide, thankfully, stayed quiet too.

After a few minutes that felt like forever the man came back but not offering his papers back just yet.

“This car is not in your name.” he stated and that made Sam sweat. Of course, he had papers on a Camaro, not a GMC. His palms tightened painfully around the wheel as his mind started to run a mile. He hadn’t thought through this part. Was it his dads? His mom’s? Can an officer easily check that out? Michaela’s? His neighbour's name he doesn’t even remember? He found the car open and decided to borrow?

“Oh boy…” Sam let out unintentionally before he could stop himself.

“Boy?” the officer repeated next to him, snapping the teen back to the present. 

“Um…Yes. My boy…friend’s. He let me use it for a pick up,” Sam nodded while looking the policeman straight into the eyes, not daring to look away. 

“Boyfriend’s?” the policeman repeated with a hint of disbelief. “And what were you picking up?”  

“Flowers and seedlings. Remaking our backyard garden,” Sam cracked an awkward smile and batted his eyelashes at him in an exaggerated flutter. 

The man recoiled at such a display, handing his papers back. Sam was clearly not worth his time in filing paperwork. “Keep this thing under 30. On your way,” he tapped the side of the car before turning to walk away.

“Good night, officer!” Sam yelled after him cheerfully, relieved that they were let go with a warning. When the patrol car passed them, driving away, the teen finally relaxed, slouching over, resting his forehead against the wheel.

The black truck was vibrating just slightly, clearly not being able to hold in laughter, irritating and fueling Sam’s embarrassment even more.

“So, lover boy?” Ironhide cooed. “Shut up.”

“Gonna take me out for dinner first?”

“I don't want to hear about it,” Sam pleaded.

“Or are we going straight to your place?” 

Sam let out a groan that was quickly overpowered by audible laughter of the autobot. Ironhide was clearly enjoying the whole situation to the core of his spark.

“Ah this is amazing! Can’t wait to tell Bumblebee about this! Oh his face will be priceless!” the bot went on and to Sam’s horror he was sure that he wasn’t even joking but promising.  “Just… keep it under the 30, please,” is all that Sam managed while still hiding his blushing face within his palms.

“Alright alright! Will get you and flowers home safe and sound, precious,” he chuckled as they began to drive again.

And true to his words, not a single sapling was harmed during that ride.

[utilitycaster]

Hi! I'm soon (finally!) starting a Netherdeep campaign with my lovely friends. This is my second time DMing, but character work is not my strong suit. Any suggestions as a fellow Netherdeep DM for preparing how to roleplay the rivals? I thought of writing out fanfic style how they (the rivals) would adventure through the module, and writing out dialogue/party banter to get a feel for them, but I'd love to hear from you as a more seasoned DM on how you approach this kind of challenge. Thanks for your time!

I hesitate to say character work is MY strong suit either but I do think about the rivals a lot! so:

Read through the full adventure if you haven't as it does cover the rivals' arcs. I will warn you that my main criticism of Netherdeep is that there's a few assumptions it makes regarding what you and what the rivals will do, especially in Bazzoxan and in choosing factions in Ank'Harel. [btw: I did not have the rivals ally with Consortium of the Vermillion Dream despite my party allying with the Cobalt Soul because frankly based on how Bazzoxan went down it made no sense, and I'm happy to talk through how I've set them up with the Allegiance of Allsight. I think if your party chooses the Allegiance of Allsight it might be trickier due to the nature of the Cobalt Soul and the arcs of the rivals; you may want to have them join the Vermillion Dream with a goal of infiltration.] So while I think you should maintain the emotional arcs, you need to be flexible regarding the exact factors involved.

I think the book does cover what interests and drives the rivals, and that's very helpful. Honestly, the most basic advice of "know overall what this character is running from and what they are running to, and also what they want and fear in the short term" is pretty much how I play NPCs. This is also way easier than writing fanfic.

With that said: if you do want to write out their side of the story I think that's great - essentially, yeah, I do at least vaguely have a sense of what's going on for them and if making it more concrete will help you, go for it. My only warning is don't go ahead because they will be shaped by how your players interact with them - I expected my players to be super into Ayo and Dermot, and instead we've had a LOT of Maggie and some important Irvan stuff (my fighter has some really interesting parallels with both of them) and some fun Galsariad drama too (because we also have a snobby wizard in the party). Also, real talk, if someone does a rivals POV fic for a full netherdeep campaign in this manner I would 100% read that.

I don't know how helpful this is. I will admit I have a bit of a Spenser Starke problem in that like...while GM-ing while I do not per se black out it's kind of just pure improv instinct and vibes for how characters react. I am also ngl a little bit lazy and drunk off the power of the module being already written so I'm like "oh i don't need to prepare as extensively? GREAT."

[stonegearstudios]

Despite the best efforts of cruel nature, hitting me with an ice storm that snapped trees like twigs, cut my power for days, and slowly contrived to freeze me even in my well insulated house, I have endured.

And more than endured, I snorted that ice like meth and finished the entirety of On the Ruins of Giants with just a quill and candle! We'll be crowdfunding soon!

...

...

yeah, you know what day it is, and that I'm a lazy bastard that's spent the last few days napping in a chair under a blanket, but SOME progress has been made, so let's go through it

State of the Game - April 1st 2025

Yeah we're nowhere near done, and still a ways away from even a basic alpha, but we're further along than any of my other projects.

So, I've been working on putting things in a google doc, so that I can eventually share versions with people and solicit comments (which is gonna be so, so painful to me).

Wish I had a better way than using google products, but I don't know of one.

So far I've been going through and organizing sections, to fill out from there. I have

A table of contents

A "What is a RPG" section, including a part on the kind of game I created this system for. You don't have to listen to me, but I think it's a useful way to set expectations.

A short scene setting lore primer and explanation what these mutant mice even are

Character Creation - I intend to have two paths to make a PC in the final project, by using playbooks to generate a backstory to (shamelessly inspired by Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures) as well as a point buy system. Working on the point buy system first.

Then we get to the mechanics section, covering how stats(Strength, Scurry, & Savvy), Abilities (big TBD there), and derived stats (Health, Luck, Stress, & Speed) work

Then we cover the three main modes of play in the game: Exploration, Socializing, & Combat

Exploration is the central pillar of the game, in my mind, so I'm putting it first. Players need to know how to explore this ruined world, how to investigate sites of interest, and how to establish base camps.

Socializing includes both mechanics for rp between players, but also NPCs back at Nest. Finally, Colony Building could be seen as the default goal of player characters, before they figure out something for themselves.

Finally, combat, which encompasses not just how to fight, but how to run (You are a very small mouse after all), and how to manage the resources you need to survive

Finally, I'll need to put together a GM section, so that people other than me can create challenges, maps, enemies and the like

So, when will I have a version that's at least theoretically testable?

...

Man, I dunno, I'm absolutely terrible at estimating my own work times. That's why if I ever do work up the courage to crowdfund it won't be until all my work is done.

[hrodvitnon]

Hello, I am once again back with more fun brainworms about your Signalis OCs.

This time, TTRPG night with the Penrose Polycule, Cali, and Randal!

It was probably Isa's idea (since she met Falke and Randall on the Shores of Oblivion in LIATTM), Randall and Elster are staring daggers at each other until they realise that they have a lot in common when they're not trapped in a time loop trying to get back their respective lovers, Ariane gets made to GM at first because she can make miniatures with Bioresonance, while Falke is trying to convince Ariane to let her train her to control her Bioresonance better.

Adler starts showing up a few sessions in. He wasn't really invited, but he offered to take over GMing for Ariane so they let him do that. He does have an enemy shove Elster's PC down a hole at some point. Nobody finds it all that funny.

Oh, this is delightful! Poor Adler probably has to deal with constant flirting in this group, whether it's the Penrose Polycule or Falke and Randal seeming to get a little too into their queen/knight roleplay. (Falke insists on playing a bard (and not a seduce-everything-that-moves bard) from a royal family because being a paladin like expected would be too boring, and Randal is her bodyguard. So much flirting ensues that Ariane suspects it's a form of foreplay.) It becomes a running gag to pull out a paper fan when someone rolls a natural 20 after Ariane did it the first time Elster rolled a successful crit; for those who watch Dimension 20, think the regular fan shenanigans in The Seven.

Adler's one-time pit-shoving of Elster's PC also becomes something of a running gag, or at least an in-joke, when while dealing with a ceiling spike trap, Isa (playing a rogue) discovers a secret alcove in the floor and wall, likened to a Lazy Susan, big enough for at least two of them to slip inside. A group of enemies pours in. Isa points out she has sneak attack and can lure an enemy in close to the Lazy Susan so that Elster (playing a monk) can grapple them. After rolling to grapple, Elster turns to Adler and grins hugely, shouts, "WELCOME TO MURDER HOLE!"

Ariane plays a witch, leading to the immortal words: "My hair deals damage to the construct!"

There may have been some tension at first when Adler took over GM duties for Ariane (especially after the pit shove) but pretty soon Adler really gets into it and has an absolute BLAST; turns out he's great at doing accents and character voices, which lends itself quite well to both comedy and table-gripping drama.

[fuck-customers]

(🐎 anon) This a fuck coworkers thing. Fuck this one specific coworker.

This dude is almost useless as a worker. He takes forever to take out the trash (even when the shift manager already gathered it and literally all he has to do is walk it out to the Dumpster. She said it still took him about an hour to do. He doesn't drain all the grease off the bacon, which means the pans are ten times messier than normal, making more work for the dish washer (me). He leaves parts of the paper the bacon is cooked on stuck to the pan. Today he burned an entire pan of bacon black AND JUST LEFT IT ON THE PAN WHEN HE PUT THE PAN WITH THE DIRTY DISHES (the person doing the bacon is supposed to remove the paper and throw it in a trash can RIGHT NEXT to where the bacon is cut). But that isn't even the worst part.

This dude never shuts up and he is LOUD. And everything he says is stupid, offensive, inappropriate, or some combo of those. He talks about women like they're objects and what kinds he likes (big white girls. We had an employee who fit that description and he made her VERY uncomfortable. And he is MARRIED), and everyone knows he doesn't like listening to women (so why are you working at a place where all but one of the managers, most of the crew, and the GM are women?). He is also shamelessly homophobic, saying things like "i used to like that song, but then I found out [the artist] was gay." And his excuse for this shit is always "Well, I went to church...." (the church of being a total dick?)

But they probably won't fire him because if they did, he'd say they did it because he's black and not because he's a lazy homophobic misogynist piece of shit asshole (we have two black managers, dude, and several Hispanic people on staff, along with at least one other black person. Try something else.)

Just......fuck this dickwad guy.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[cyberphuck]

Okay I didn't pay for this one bc my buddy had torrented it and just randomly decided we were gonna watch it instead of our scheduled ttrpg session, but the Mario Brothers movie from 2023.

That movie wasn't just bad, it was insulting. Every single scene was just like *wojak face* remember this? This was in the game! Reference!! Oh boy this one's a retro reference for the grownups! Okay time for another thing you recognize from a game! And the writing was lazy and phoned-in that all of the dialogue may as well have been "cash grab one liner *kazoo noise*."

It was so horrible that for weeks afterward every time I thought about it I'd get angry all over again. You had the budget, time and tech and permission to make an all-CGI animated Mario movie and you made this?? You cast Chris Pratt in the lead??? SETH ROGAN IS DONKEY KONG????? YOU LET JACK BLACK HAVE A MUSICAL NUMBER????????

I feel kind of bad because I almost definitely ruined my GM's viewing experience, but in my defense I did not ask or expect to have that movie forced on me.

What would you guys consider the worst movie you've ever seen? Not something that's fun to make fun of, nothing you ironically enjoyed, I mean just an absolutely miserable moviegoing experience that you paid for, hated every second, and wish you had walked out of and asked for a refund.

For me, no joke, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. It did not even feel like a real movie to me. It made me see red! I was SEETHING with anger and annoyance throughout the entire thing, and I cannot for the life of me articulate why. I saw it once in 2012 when I was 15, I remember almost nothing about it now, but it struck a nerve with me like no other movie ever has before or since.

Tell me in the tags, which movie makes you disproportionately angry just thinking about it?

[arcanefisrath]

Rogue One

I just really need to put this out there so at least someplace on the internet shares my opinion.

Rogue One was not a very good movie. It was not the best star wars film, it was probably the worst of them honestly. It ruined a lot of interesting backstory about finding the death star plans and was more

The prequels were a lazy mess that were never going to be good with the minimum effort being put into making them. People put effort into Rogue One and they still made a movie I didn't like.

Not talking performances either, they were completely fine. It was a well made film which is why it being bad was more frustrating than the prequel films. Saw it three times in theaters and it got worse every time, and thankfully now our office doesn't go out to see films anymore so I won't have to endure that again.

It wasn't Prometheus bad where it's just miserable the whole time but like why anything in the film. Why is she in jail? Why does no one bring up her Mom? Why waste Forrest Whitaker? He was in Ghost Dog! Did the like pile of writers not share notes when they were doing their 20% of the film's story?

Was this all based on someone's pen and paper Star Wars role playing game session? It certainly feels like some weird adventuring party and then a GM just having Star Wars stuff show up. Suppose it's not as bad as that D&D movie.

So there, if you didn't like Rogue One there you go. One other person on the internet agrees with you that it wasn't something they enjoyed watching. I think wrestler Cody Rhodes doesn't rate it that highly either but you'd have to ask him to be sure, but maybe that's two people.

My rating is give it a pass.

[thatmittengirl2009]

My friend Chris posted this and he likes to stir the pot on his FB because since he lives in FL, he has lots of people from both sides of the isle on his friends list.

He often awaits my thoughts as usually I always tear apart his one trump loving friend who eventually shuts up when he can’t argue back. But this was a really thoughtful post.

It’s true. People say they want blue collar jobs brought back but the moment they are, no one wants to work there.

Detroit is known for “our grit” because we were traditionally a huge part of the blue collar workforce due to the auto industry. Anyone you talk to here has been in a factory job at least once in their life. It was far more normal for that to be your first job rather than working at a McDonalds. If the jobs came back here, I don’t think Detroit would have an issue as they’ve begged for Ford and Chevy and GM to come back here full time for decades. I will say the auto unions are the only ones excited about the tariffs in hopes it does bring manufacturing back to the city.

What most people don’t get is that takes time though and even then, we didn’t make the parts that created the assembly line. All those robots and machine parts come from other countries still. By the time you think of all the new tariffs, it’s far cheaper to just pay the 25% tariff to bring in a new car than find all the pieces individually and bring it here to be built. And this is where people need to learn how supply chains actually work. I really really want someone who works in supply chain management to go on the news and give a Lesson in basic logistics 101.

Everyday we hear about something urgent coming in that needs to be cleared ASAP because it could mean the entire factory shutting down. I was once assigned to get on a plane at 8pm to go meet someone in Arizona at an airport to pick up an important part in a duffle bag a company needed. The charter flight bringing it in from MX was stopped at customs there and couldn’t fly further for whatever reason but the company shed thousands to ensure it got back here timely. Weirdest side quest I was ever sent on. Then checked it as I landed in Detroit and a company manager picked it up from there. This happens way more than people think just to keep an operation going.

We opened a battery factory not too far from me in 2021. It makes batteries for electric vehicles. They had such a hard time getting people to take jobs there. There’s another auto plant 15 minutes from me and they always have hiring signs. People just do not want blue collar jobs. The pay always starts at $21 an hour but it’s hard work and frankly people are lazy. This includes trump people & liberals equally. Why work when you can make TikToks and get views for cash? Or is it laziness or something deeper?

Chris is originally from NYC so his factory experience was in the Bronx and I can’t say if it’s the same as it was here in Detroit or not but yes most people from other nationalities tend to take these jobs that Americans once say they loved. I think it comes down to the “go to college” narrative we’ve heard most of our lives.

Going to college was always a luxury but 70s, 80s, and even 90s, it wasn’t a hard requirement. You could even be a high school dropout and get a good paying job. Being a 90s baby though, all I’ve ever heard growing up was how important college is and that you need to go. Not by my family but by society. It’s drilled into us at school and started in media too. Most people who graduate want a job in their field. Taking a factory job became this “that’s beneath me” mentality. Everything became about the transition to white collar jobs as more people started graduating. Add in technology and most people were now getting jobs in IT, coding, robotics, etc. Manufacturing jobs started to get replaced with robots which made things more efficient but that also created job loss in that sector.

The issue now is that college is unaffordable for majority but there are no more blue collar jobs to fall back on too. Every job post you look at requires a minimum of a BA or higher. But if you have a masters, you’re “overqualified” at the same time. My best friend has a masters and can’t get a job anywhere because of it. It’s why she still works at an auto dealership as a sales clerk. Sometimes looking down on these people and jobs isn’t the story you think it is.

Look I know people hate China and think communism right away but it’s not. They got it right and why they’re like the Wakanda of the real world. They have a socialist/capitalist economy. Make the rich pay their fair share and that wealth gets redistributed back to society. That’s why there is no homeless and housing is affordable. Food is affordable, basic utilities are affordable. There is always jobs affordable because the retirement age is 50 and they take care of their elderly. Once people retire at 50, it creates more jobs to the younger workers coming in. Now someone clarified that you don’t not have to quit at 50. Many take side jobs for fun to just get out the house and socialize but if they wanted to just stop working, they’re taken care of not left to wonder how they’ll pay rent or anything. They embrace technology and use it in a smart way with humans that makes things more efficient and creates safety at the same time. Their public transportation is next level and they’re doing everything they can to help the environment.

I’m just saying they got it right. Their people are happy, healthy and no wonder they were hidden by the world so the west didn’t try to destroy what they’ve created. Yes it’s law they cannot talk about their government in a bad way but many said “why would we? We’re taken care of.” The thing is they invest in their own people. The US could never because it’s a me, me, me, me mindset. Thing is China was so happy when the Red Note/Tiktok overlap happened and Americans were talking with Chinese citizens. Did you know they grow up admiring us and think we’re a beautiful country?? It’s why their government pays for their people to come abroad here to study or do programs. They encourage the community but it’s Americans who’ve been told to fear them and that they’re bad. Many Chinese students do come here to study but are meant with “go back to your country!!!” Their illusions of how wonderful we are, are destroyed by how mean and selfish we really are. It sucks!! Their government was ready to lift the internet ban so they could freely talk with us more. They lifted the visa requirements to go there and visit on vacation. People explained the internet ban wasn’t to stifle them but to protect them from the lies of western media. Now that Trump has basically taxed their stuff to death with tariffs, the government reversed its decision for American travel and social media usage.

I guess my point is even if they brought back these jobs, who would honestly do them? Hate to say it but Americans in general don’t like hard work. They don’t like innovation. They don’t like new ways of doing things especially if it hurts the pockets of CEOs. There’s so many factors everywhere that have contributed to our downfall over time that we can argue in circles for days. We have a capitalist society that never had rules or regulations. We had presidents and congress give tax cuts to the rich and the other legislation never did checks or balances because all politicians usually take bribes. We’ve been corrupted for a while, it’s just now very noticeable where you can’t give excuses anymore or ignore it. Why do you think all politicians end up super wealthy? They certainly don’t get paid that.

I’m just glad more and more political leaders are becoming independents. Both dems and republicans have started the switch and that’s what we need if this country is ever going to be on the same page and come back to unity. A politician should not be working for their party but for the people they represent no matter what. Honestly both parties have pissed me off for past several years and now hearing what the dems did to Kamala and Tim…..fuck em all. Washington has been corrupt for a while.

This was a long rant and I just have tons of opinions on it all but I guess I just love that people are willing to have honest, open dialogue about all this. These types of questions are needed to make people think and that creates real action and change.

[korianduh]

Hi! this is probably going to be a long one, so strap in!

As the title implies, this advert is for DC Comics roleplay! But before I get into the meat of the ad, I'll give an introduction of myself, some things to note about how I roleplay and what I'm looking for at the moment etc etc.

Firstly, I'm 18 years old and only looking for other people who are also 18+, mostly for reasons pertaining to comfortability, experience and potential (but not required) smut scenes! I've been roleplaying for a while now, so I consider myself pretty literate! My average response is around three pc paragraphs, but I can pretty easily go above with the right partner. Truthfully, I actually prefer partners who are more experienced, and able to help push my writing further, as I'm always looking to improve! I also put just as much effort into the plotting of a roleplay as the roleplay itself. I thoroughly enjoy building worlds or taking pre-existing worlds and crafting interesting stories that range from expansive story arcs to smaller scale experiences focusing on character dynamics.

Another thing I should mention is that I much much much prefer to play original characters! I have several of my own that I've been using for years and have worked very hard on. I like to think that because of this they fit in really well with the universe of DC as that's what they were specifically made for. So you shouldn't have to worry about me using any lazy, overpowered or self-insert OC's! Of course, I can still play canons, I just prefer doing it *in addition to* my OC's! I say this because I love when my partner can play canons, and I'd find it unfair if someone asked me to play a canon but they refused to do the same. So in the sake of fairness, I'm more than willing to play canons if you're going to be doing the same! On the topic of who I play, I also lean towards playing female, or female aligned characters. All of my OC's are women and most of the canons I'm capable of playing are also women, so keep that in mind.

Lastly I'll just cover some specific things I like when roleplaying! As the title states, I almost exclusively roleplay on discord, for a few big reasons! A) It's where I've always roleplayed, it makes it easier to keep all my plots there, and because I'm used to it! and B ) I like making private servers for more story heavy roleplay, I've grown attached to using things like tuppers and separate channels for different scenes. So Ideally I'd like someone familiar with discord, as well as someone who likes making the extra effort with a server, but of course, that's just me being a nerd so it's totally not required!

As a bonus I'll give a lil list of things I appreciate in a partner or am almost looking for, but aren't remotely requirements!: PC/Laptop users, can GM/DM and super super experienced!

Now, onto the fun part!

DC Comics, something I've been a big fan of for as long as I can remember. As with most people I watched the animated shows, played the Arkham games and watched the movies even as they declined in quality. I'm a huge DC fan, and in the past year or two I've been getting into the comics! Some of my fav series - the new teen titans, birds of prey and anything Wonderfam! Though I've also been wanting to get into the Lanterns and Superfam lately, plus I plan on picking up the current Justice League Unlimited run eventually. But anyways, all this to say I'm a big fan of DC and a beginner comic reader, so I'm only really looking for people who can match my comic book nerd freak, as they say.

Ideally I'd love people who are just as big comic fans as I, if not more experienced and knowledgeable to make up for my novice! Though if you're just a fan of the extended media (which I also love, don't get me wrong), you're still more than welcome to respond to this ad! Basically, I'm just looking for people who enjoy roleplaying, talking about and engaging with DC as much as I do!

Now, you might be wondering, with DC being such an expansive universe with all different continuities, adaptions and multiversal earths, which one will we be using for this roleplay?! Now the answer is really simple, ANY! That's right, whether it be Earth-16 from Young Justice, the twisted dark dimension, the DCAU etc etc, they're all on the table. However, an alternative option which is my favorite, is we do something of our own. We create our own world were can pick and choose things from different continuities, setting up our own 'canon' if you will. While still sticking to the core aspects of the DC universe! I find this to be the easiest, given that at times certain decisions made by writers are....interesting, so why not rewrite them to our liking!

As for specific plots however, I have a few prepared, as I'm always thinking of new ones as I read/watch different things! Of course, I love love love brainstorming with my partners, so if you have a plot of your own I'd love to hear it. Or if you have any adjustments/additions to the ones below I'd also love to hear those! Overall, I much prefer vocal partners who actually engage in the plotting process rather than the same old "I'm down for that! Wow great idea! Mhm that's fine!" Anyways, enough of my venting, onto the prompts!

PROMPT #1 - 'Gods at War!': Long/Short term, Story Heavy Athena and Poseidon; Gods of Olympus, former rivals...at war again! For reasons unknown, the Goddess of wisdom and the God of the sea are at odds again. Whether it be over territory once more, or a battle of the ego, the truth remains unclear. However, their quarrel is not fought in the skies, or another plane all-together, but instead on land and sea. The Amazons of Themyscira and Atlanteans are two victims, forced to fight each other for the sake of these God's sparring. Used by these God's to fight their petty battle. Their cultures and people's split into two, those fighting for the war, and those fighting against. So far several cities have had to evacuate due to the destruction being wrought as the people of the sea meet the women of the land in ferocious combat. However, it has been made clear by Queen Hippolyta and King Orin that they condemn their peoples needless fighting. Confirming that this war is one orchestrated by a third party, preying on their peoples loyalty to the Gods of Olympus. Of course, one would assume this issue would be on the shoulders of the Justice League. But of course, due to the diplomatic repercussions of a war between Themyscira and Atlantis, they must be vigilante. They cannot directly interfere with the ongoing battles, taking place mostly on land, the Atlantean and Amazon sects fighting it out as the civilian casualties rose from the battles. Something needed to be done... Someone had to step in... But who?

PROMPT #2 - 'Smile for the Camera!': Long Term, Multiple Characters Despite all the heroics that comes with being a superhero, unfortunately, they are at the mercy of public opinion, like any other public figure. No matter how many times groups like the Justice League save the world, there will always be someone questioning if they're truly making it a better place. Government officials who want nothing more than to control these individuals, or civilians who worry for the damage they cause from their large scale battles. As groups like the league, the titans etc continue to operate, the public must be given an answer to help soothe their weariness That's where...The Heroes™ come in, the most pr friendly, poster child of a superhero team type come in. A complete front, an olive branch from the Justice League to appease both the government and the public. Even their name is completely corny and lacks any kind of substance. Made up of heroes who are already celebrities, have their secret identity revealed and nobody who can get hurt by their extremely public flaunting of their superhero endeavors. Used for nothing more than red carpets, hand shaking and big plastered smiles. However despite the Justice League playing a part in the formation and legitimization of this new team, they have close to zero control over them. Unfortunately the Government has weaseled their way into having their own personal team of Justice League affiliates, and the real League is none the wiser. Thanks to corporate sponsors and several heroic stunts, it didn't take long for the team to win the public over. But what if these superheroes they've collected and put on display, aren't interested in being puppets for the sake of the 'real' heroes PR?  Will they rebel? Go rogue? Or maybe they just aren't real heroes, but are forced into a situation where they must be?

PROMPT #3 - 'Trip to Apokolips': One-Shot, Combat Focused Apokolips, home of Darkseid and seemingly all thing destructive. One would hate to get stranded there... But of course, a superhero can't always choose their vacation spot in their line of work. These two unfortunately aren't exactly going to like the resort they're being sent to, as they fly through the large cosmic hole spawned by the boomtube. Whether they're two small-time vigilantes busting an apokoliptan weapons team, or two Leaguers caught in the aftermath of another failed invasion. How they get there is irrelevant, the real question they should be asking themselves is how in the hell are they going to get out. How many of the swarms of Parademons can they hold off, or maybe they have an encounter with one of all of the furies? Perhaps they're not quite stranded, and this is a covert mission, with the purpose of scouting out the homeworld of one of the Leagues greatest foes?

Alright, hopefully I haven't fried your brain from all the reading! If you couldn't tell, I'm super eager to get into some roleplay! So I'll try and wrap this up as quick as I can, I just have a few final things to go over! Firstly, I expect introductions, I'm not really looking for a simple "hey i wanna rp, you still looking?" types of responses. I won't tell you exactly what to include in an intro, but some things I enjoy knowing are how much you write, your experience level, plot ideas etc etc. One thing I definitely expect however, is a password, so I know you've read the full ad! In your intro please include your favourite DC character and why you like them, that will serve as the password!

I'd prefer you reach out by adding my discord — 'korianduh', I am much more active on there and will be more likely to see your request! Don't forget to have an intro prepared though! Hope to hear from anybody! :3